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| October 17, 2016 | |
| CERQUI ENDING THE ITALIAN GT CHAMPIONSHIP 2016 SEASON WITH A FOURTH PLACE IN MUGELLO | |
| 17/10/2016 - Alberto Cerqui's season 2016 in the Italian GT Championship ended at Mugello. The driver from Brescia, back to BMW as BMW Team Italia's works driver, just missed out on the podium ending with a fourth place in race two.
The closing weekend of the Championship has seen Alberto Cerqui sharing the box with Alex Zanardi, the guest star at the wheel of the other works BMW M6 GT3. Pushed also by the pride of running in the same team as a driver of the likes of Zanardi, Cerqui put all his grit and motivation on track since the first free practice session, ending fourth right behind Zanardi. In qualifying, the difficult weather conditions made the session even trickier, as the driver from Brescia ended tenth with a best lap of 2'07.365. Cerqui pushed hard in race-1, getting the most of the performance of his car and he quickly managed to get within the top five, before climbing up to P3 before handing the car over to Stefano Comandini. The BMW M6 GT3 was involved in the battle for P3 in the closing stages, but a contact in the final laps forced Comandini to an early retirement. Comandini was at the wheel at the beginning of race two, following the 2'05.470 obtained in qualifying. At the driver change, Cerqui found himself alongside the Audi of Mapelli-Vanthoor at the pits exit, and the latter managed to rejoin ahead. The driver from Brescia started to chase the Belgian trying to find his way past him in several occasions, but the few laps left did not allow him to find the right gap and therefore he closed his effort in P4. Final classification of the Italian GT 2016 Championship: 1. Gai Stefano (Ferrari 488 Italia GT3) 147 points; 1. Venturi Mirko (Ferrari 488 Italia GT3) 147 points; 3. Mapelli Marco (Audi R8 LMS) 141 points; 4. Albuquerque Filipe Miguel Delgadinho (Audi R8 LMS) 126 points; 5. Agostini Riccardo ITA (Lamborghini Huracan) 115 points; 6. Di Folco Alberto (Lamborghini Huracan) 114 points; 7. Bortolotti (Lamborghini Huracan) 108 points; 7. Mul Jeroen (Lamborghini Huracan) 108 points; 9. Gattuso Stefano (Lamborghini Huracan) 94 points; 9. Frassineti Alex (Lamborghini Huracan) 93 points; 11. Cerqui Alberto (BMW M6 GT3) 88.5 points Alberto Cerqui: "I am very happy on BMW Team Italia's weekend in Mugello and I congratulate Alex on this comeback in style. Things have been a bit complicated for me, as something was missing in both races to get the double podium that was at our reach. The car was very competitive and I have to thank BMW and the whole team that have always worked to allow me to get the most out of the car. We could not get some important results, but it has been a really exciting season in a tight championship. My compliments go to Gai and Venturi that won it". | |